It's easy to lose a husband, but getting him back is a dangerous affair. She lost him. After 10 years of good fights and good sex, he's gone without a trace. Flown off to a new life - and a new young love. A common tale for wives, but Shelley is no common wife. When other women might be stunned, Shelley is steel. When other women might give him up, Shelley brilliantly schemes to get him back. In flamboyant disguise and lonely desire, she sleuths, she watches, she waits. Then she makes her move.

Staged as a supper theatre by the Madras Players.

CHAPMAN: You mean the victim's father.
SHELLEY: I prefer Candice. Mr Schrafft's a professor there. A very pompous and learned gentleman.
CHAPMAN: So you told him who you are and he must stop his daughter stealing husbands? She'll find out you saw him when they talk, you know.
SHELLEY: No, she won't. I lied. I said my name was Pauline Bell, daughter of an old don in Balliol. I asked my questions discretely.
CHAPMAN: You are a devious woman.
SHELLEY: (laughs) I am, aren't I. I feel like a sleazy detective working on a divorce case, except I'm trying to save my marriage. I never knew I was a fluent liar.
CHAPMAN: You've got many hidden talents. I hope this ...Peter...Charles...
SHELLEY: David.
CHAPMAN:...is worth it. He must be a hell of a guy.
SHELLEY: Not as dashing as you Chapman. But I love him. I can't tell how or why we love someone. It happens. Someone said, lovers are not people, they're the dreaming spirits in us.
CHAPMAN: How long has he been gone?
SHELLEY: Five weeks and three days. It feels like an eternity. Enough time for him to have forgotten. But it also may not be enough time for him to have settled into her life. Why do we leave each other? Lust? Or because we grow tired of the same face.
CHAPMAN: What were his reasons?
SHELLEY: In his note, he says he fell in love. It began 'Dear Shelley'. It was the formality that frightened me. It read like a 'Dear Sir'. Ten years of darlings, dearest, beloved, angel, and I was reduced to a 'dear sir.'
CHAPMAN: You're lucky. I had the locks changed on me. And I'd just won the Monaco Grand Prix. He's a doctor and the only risks he ever takes are malpractice suits or getting hit by a golf ball.
SHELLEY: Did you leave or she?
CHAPMAN: Betty fell in love with this quack.
SHELLEY: And you just let her go? After how many years?
CHAPMAN: Ten. She's got the children. I guess we could have gone on for another ten.
SHELLEY: If it was good, why didn't you then?
CHAPMAN: She wanted out.
SHELLEY: Do you know for sure? Sometimes we threaten, and don't quite mean it.
CHAPMAN: How sure is sure? She's with another man now. That's what she wanted. (Pause). Your husband's in New York, isn't he?
SHELLEY: Yes. He's somewhere out there, with another woman, in another bed.
CHAPMAN: What's this Candice person like?
SHELLEY: Young, pretty, bright.
CHAPMAN: Old, ugly, dumb you got a chance.
SHELLEY: He wouldn't have left me for that.
CHAPMAN: So he gave you a tough one. Let him go.
SHELLEY: I told you, I love him.
CHAPMAN: In time you won't.
SHELLEY: Besides, I'm mad as hell at him.